Thursday, September 7, 2017

Vol State Book Read Examines Incarceration with “Just Mercy”

According to numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Justice
Statistics, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any nation
in the world. The number of American prisoners has increased from 300,000 in
the 1970s to 2.3 million people today. The Volunteer State Community College
One Book, One Community initiative will examine these issues this coming school
year with a group read of the non-fiction book "Just Mercy" by Bryan
Stevenson. This is how the publisher, Spiegel and Grau, describes “Just Mercy.”

“Bryan Stevenson takes us on an unforgettable journey into the broken American
criminal justice system in his much lauded New York Times bestselling “Just
Mercy.” After Stevenson graduated from Harvard Law School he started the Equal
Justice Initiative, a law practice dedicated to defending some of America's
most rejected and marginalized people. Among the first cases he took on was
that of Walter McMillian, a black man from Monroeville, Alabama who was
sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn't commit. The case
would change Bryan's life and transform his understanding of justice and mercy
forever. “Just Mercy” follows the suspenseful battle to free Walter before the
state executes him, while also stepping back to tell the profoundly moving
stories of men, women, and even children, who found themselves at the mercy of
a system often incapable of showing it.”

Bryan Stevenson. Photo by Nina Subin.

The One Book, One Community initiative joins Vol State, local schools,
libraries and readers from across Sumner County for the group read. There are three
speakers coming to the Vol State campus in Gallatin to discuss issues raised by
the book. Everyone is welcome to attend these free events.

Jeannie Alexander will be speaking on September 13 at 1 p.m. in the Caudill
Hall Wemyss Auditorium. Readers of the Nashville Scene will recognize her as
the publication’s “Best Advocate” in 2017. Alexander, who has been involved in
advocacy for those affected by homelessness as well as the prison system, now
heads up the No Exceptions Prison Collective, a nonprofit focused on the
abolition of prisons as well as the establishment of basic treatment standards
for prisoners. Alexander will talk about her experiences as an advocate and
more generally about the prison system.

Vanderbilt Philosophy Professor Lisa Guenther will discuss the prison system in
America on October 24 at 1 p.m. in the Mary Cole Nichols Dining Room.
Guenther’s areas of focus include mass incarceration, capital punishment, the
carceral state, race and racism, and the effects of solitary confinement.

The Reverend Joseph B. Ingle will present on November
15 at 1 p.m. in the Caudill Hall Wemyss Auditorium. Ingle is an expert on
the history of incarceration in the United States. The Reverend founded the
Tennessee Committee against State Killing, and has served as the director of
the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons as well as the Executive Director
of the Neighborhood Justice Center, a Nashville based coalition focused on
restorative justice.

“Just Mercy” is available at many Sumner County libraries
and all Vol State library locations. For more information on One Book, One
Community and “Just Mercy” visit www.volstate.edu/onebook.